Moments before the holiday weekend, a federal judge in Texas delivered a long-awaited ruling with an unprecedented (and, to health experts, baseless) conclusion: that mifepristone, a drug used in more than half of all abortions performed in the U.S., had not been properly approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 23 years ago. The temporary withdrawal of the drug, expected to go into effect on Apr. 14 if no legal challenges succeed in the days beforehand, would immediately take the most commonly used abortion method off the table for women across the country.

Here's what experts are saying about how the ruling—if it withstands legal challenges—would affect abortions.

They may get more painful: In medication abortions, mifepristone is paired with another drug called misoprostol. Using just misoprostol would likely mean more cramping and bleeding.

Less effective: One study this year found that misoprostol-only abortions were only 88% effective, while the two-drug regimen is effective nearly 100% of the time.

And more constricted: A single-drug regimen could have a narrower window of use, since there's no established protocol for it in the U.S..

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